STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A stare-down in South Beach Monday afternoon ended with a 17-year-old stabbed six times, and his 18-year-old assailant behind bars, according to authorities.

The bloody episode took place just before 3 p.m., in front of 134 McClean Ave. According to police, Nigel Warren, 18, of Jersey Street in New Brighton, stabbed a 17-year-old repeatedly in the chest and stomach.

One of those stabs cut into one of the ventricles of the teen's heart, requiring surgery at Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze, according to court papers. He remains in critical but stable condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

According to a law enforcement source, Warren was walking with some friends "when a Latin King stared at him. He stared back."

Warren told police that the purported gang member punched him in the face, and he retorted with the knife to defend himself, the source said.

Warren is charged with first- and second-degree assault, as well as fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, according to information from District Attorney Daniel Donovan. He was arraigned Tuesday in Stapleton Criminal Court and ordered held on $100,000 bail until his next appearance Friday.

Advance records show he was arrested twice in 2010 -- once in connection with an alleged mugging with an imitation pistol at the Grasmere train station in November, the other for an alleged beating an attempted robbery in the halls of Curtis High School in December.

Warren, who was 16 at the time, was prosecuted as a youthful offender, a law enforcement source said.